90 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 

 They knew what to look for at home : 



' For as Lord Marmion crossed the court 



He scattered angels round , . . 

 * ^ -x- * -x- 



And he their courtesy to requite 

 Gave them a chain of twelve marks' weight 

 AH as he lighted down.' 



That was the example to which (in the opinion, 

 apparently, of Sir John Finett) men of spirit with 

 missions from abroad were bound to conform, re- 

 gardless of the bearing of such a course on the 

 official allowance for travelling expenses. 



On the other hand, while sailing craft were the 

 only packets available, the Vicar of Backwell and 

 Curate of Maidstone electrified those parishes with 

 the account of a journey to France in 1814, under 

 the title (which must have puzzled some at least 

 of his rural parishioners) of ' Mon Journal de Huit 

 Jours.' What he really accomplished was the transit 

 from Maidstone to Dover, Dover to Calais, Calais 

 to Boulogne, and back again, and this he did so 

 rapidly as to be scarcely more than a week away 

 from his flocks. That the journey should be con- 

 sidered to have been performed with extraordinary 

 swiftness is some indication of the state of the com- 

 munication of that day ; though it is proper to add 

 that a writer, in commenting on the reverend gentle- 

 man's volume, expressed surprise, not that the 

 author should have seen so much in so short a time, 

 but that in ' huit jours ' any man of common-sense 



